First Days in Ito

My first Few days in Ito went quickly, as I had many things to take care of. I accompanied Lisa to the board of education in City Hall, where I met all the great people in the office where she works. Toshi is her immediate supervisor, then there are Miyuki, Naomi, Katsato, and a couple others. These people are really kind and helpful, and have made settling in to work life in Ito much more pleasant. Toshi took me down to the first floor of City Hall to fill out an alien registration card, or "Gaijin Card." this will serve as my identification while I am in Japan. Later in the week, I had an interview with the folks at Higashi elementary, where I will work part time teaching English starting later this month. The interview was strange, as Toshi and I were the only ones who spoke English. The interview was more of an overview of my obligations as a worker than a chance to get to know me better.
Another thing I had to take care of was to get a Han-ko. Han-ko are stamps or seals that all Japanese people use in conducting business. Mine and Lisa's look like this:
Any bank account you open, or contact you sign in Japan is not valid without a Han-ko stamped on it. Notice that names with Ls do not quite translate into the Japanese Language. Another peculiarity is that any foreigner will be immediately recognized on the Han-ko because they use Katakana to write the letters of your name. Katakana are the alphabet used in Japanese for words that come from another language like Ma-ko-do-na-ru-do マクドナルド(McDonalds). In Hiragana, McDonald's would look like:

Which you can see is distinctly different, but the presence of Katakana lets Japanese people know that this word is from another language. Anyway, we got our Han-ko and can now sign up for internet, cable, bank accounts, etc. That and a short day trip to Shizuoka to upgrade my Visa to a part time worker status was all I needed to be ready for work in Japan. Next up, you'll be seeing some work about our first tours to Atami and Shizuoka, along with, get ready, Japan BUGS! Sayonara for now!